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The summer was almost over, for me that meant that it was the middle of August (in my mind when September comes it is already fall). I had yet to take my 10 days of summer leave from the office and I was wondering what my options were. I actually had quite a lot of them, I could go to a summer house on the beach that several of my friends had rented, I could go canoeing with some of my college buddies, I could stay home and do nothing but watch movies and play games or go on a fishing trip with my brother-in-law but in the end decided to try something new.

This year for a change I decided to go on a camping trip. I didn’t feel inclined to ask if anybody wanted to come with me. I really felt like I was due for some time for reflection and what better places for inner gazing than next to the fire in the woods with your back to your tent.

This time I decided to take my dog Jingle. He is a 3 year old English Shepherd and I felt bad for leaving him with friends for all my other summer leaves and business trips so this was my chance to make it up to him.

I packed everything I needed for several days in the woods. Batteries for my electronic cigarette and my now antiquated CD player, matches, clothes, mosquito repellents, his traveling kennel (just in case he was getting restless) etc. I did my shopping for food supplies in a supermarket that was conveniently on my way out of the city and get on with the several hours drive to my destination.

I was a bit worried about Jingle, because it was his first time in a real wild forest, but my fears evaporated when we set foot (and paws) on the trail that was going to lead is to our destination. At first he was a bit suspicious towards the surroundings but afterwards he got really excited and happy with the whole situation.

Everything was going according to plan when something unexpected happened. As we were walking suddenly Jingle stopped and then sprang in the nearby bushes and after no more than 3 minutes, in which I was running after him, a painful yowl echoed among the woods. I was worried sick but the situation became clear as I saw him trying to cover his nose and eyes with his paws. Three steps later I could also smell him. Jingle has had a painful and smelly first encounter with a skunk.

Because of that I had to cut my planned camping short. The drive home was not so pleasant although all the windows were down. In the end Jingle was fine although with bruised dignity. Afterwards I decided to spend my holiday home: playing games, watching movies and keeping my dog away from my bed.

As long as I could remember my father was an avid smoker. One of my earliest memories as a child is on a warm summer’s night my father sitting on the porch, and only made visible by the red dot of his light cigarette. Over the years, my father and “his cigarettes”, as my mother calls his constant need to have a pack of cigarettes in arms reach, have turned into a constant nagging battle between my father and my mother. Well according to her she wasn’t nagging him she was “advising” him. If you have asked my father, his opinion was that she “has always turned the sweet things in life into bitter difficulty so let her nag, I will continue smoking”. Yes you got my drift.

Sometimes I think they were arguing about that topic only because they were looking for excuse to argue. Anyway, my father kept on smoking and my mother kept on “advising” him. As you could imagine as the years progressed my father’s health wasn’t getting any better. This in turn was most probably the cause of a heart-attack that gave us a real scare. The doctors were adamant my father had to give up smoking or they would be seeing him soon again.

With the choices put in front of him in that way he decided to go ahead with it and stop smoking. It was very difficult for him. He tried almost every possible substitute of smoking. Nicotine patches, nicotine gum, eating carrots even acupuncture. And he was miserable, none of the above seemed to work for him and you could feel it. He wasn’t exactly the same person, not surprisingly he was more grumpy, intense and restless. Giving up his defining lifelong habit was bound to have an effect on him and it surely did.

After some consideration I decided to look for a way to help my father. And what I, what almost immediately, found was a new (at the time) product called water vapor cigarettes or electronic smokeless cigarettes. I wasn’t sure it would work. But the general feedback was positive so I bought one for my father. At first he approached the idea with suspicion. Even my mother didn’t like it, because she thought that the ecig would bring him back to smoking real cigarettes. Well things turned up just perfectly. After several days my father loved his new ProVari E-cig, my mother was happy, and for that matter I was happy too.